Nailed It

I have been trying to pace myself with ordering all the amazing goodies from the Occasions Catalog.  Especially since I have been short on time recently, it is hard to find the time to use all the amazing products.  But what is great about Stampin' Up's perfectly coordinated stamps and accessories is that it doesn't take a long time to create with them.  Stampin' Up! takes all the guess work out of matching colors and fussy cutting things out.  I created this masculine card using the Urban Underground DSP along with the Nailed It bundle:

I decided to create a Father's Day card because this set really is perfect for my dad who amazes me with his wood working abilities.  I started off with a Basic Gray card base and took a piece of the Urban Underground DSP and embossed it with the Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.  The picture here does not do it justice...the background literally pops off the base.  I took a skinny piece of the Delightful Dijon and cut and embossed it with the ruler die from the Build It Framelit dies.  I layered on some more of the DSP, those triangles looked pretty cool to me.  I then stamped some of the tools from the Nailed It stamp set on to some Delightful Dijon with the same color ink.  I stamped the sentiment with some Delightful Dijon, die cut it with the Build It Framelit Dies and then sponged around the edges.  

With the perfect sentiments and great colors  these supplies take all the guess work out of making masculine card.  Thanks so much for stopping by today,  For more masculine card, head over to SSI where that is what we are featuring today!

  

Avant Garden

Sale-A-Bration truly is the best time of the year.  I love that we get to earn free stamps and other goodies with a qualifying purchase.  And with the amazing Occasions Catalog, it is so easy to get that qualifying order.  Today I am showing off the Avant Garden stamp set:

The set doesn't look like too much, but there are so much collage stamping potential in this set.  I used some last year's new in colors (by the by, they will be retiring at the end of May, so get those ink refills now or you will be sad!).

If you have the Sale-A-Bration brochure handy, you will see that this card is loosely CASED from a sample in there.  I got different shades of the Cucumber Crush and Watermelon Wonder by stamping twice without reinking my stamp.  I really love these colors together...the bright colors with that fabulous neutral.  This card came together super quick.  Did you spot I still used the Stitched Shaped Framelits, I can't get enough of those!!!  Seriously my favorite framelits!  

We are talking all about our favorite Sale-A-Bration stamp set over at SSI, head there for more great INKspiration.  

A Bunch of Love

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and there are quite a few people that I should be sending cards too.  I am happy to share a pretty cute one that I made:

This was pretty easy to make.  I just started with a Crumb Cake card base and added a Whisper White background.  I then punched out a bunch of hearts using the Sweetheart punch.  I used some of the Sending Love DSP stack as well as some Red Glimmer Paper.  The sentiment comes from the Ronald McDonald House Charities stamp set, My Hero.  I decided to make my hearts into a bunch of balloons and tied on some Linen Thread.  

For more Valentine's Day/Love themed cards, head over to SSI.

January Technique Challenge

Can you believe it is Monday already?  I don't know what happened to the weekend, it seemed to fly by for sure!  It is going to be wet and rainy here in my neck of the woods today, so it would be the perfect day to stay inside and stamp!  If only I could get me 3 year old boy to stamp with me.  Today we have a great Technique Challenge for you over at SSI.  Here it is:

Here is my card:

I decided to go with a pink ombre effect with my background on a Blushing Bride card base.  I sponged some Rich Razzleberry, Sweet Sugarplum and Blushing Bride on some Whisper White.  Once that dried I took out my template, a piece of Window Sheet that already had some circles cut out of it.  With a sponge dauber, I sponged on a few circles in the Whisper White Craft.  I added some of the Sale-A-Bration metallic ribbon in the Whisper White and silver and a sentiment that was stamped with Rich Razzleberry ink and then sponged in Sweet Sugarplum around the edges.  Finally I finished the whole thing off with a die cut Dragonfly in the Silver Foil.

Thanks so much for checking out my project today.  If you haven't gotten a chance to try this technique, now is your chance!  It is pretty easy and creates pretty stunning results.  I can't wait to see what you upload over at SSI!    

Beautiful You and Watercolor Pencils

So the Beautiful You stamp set is...well Beautiful!  It has three lovely ladies and lots of great sentiments.  There are also little extra stamps to add some quick color to the stamped images of the ladies.  But of course I had to use the AMAZING NEW Watercolor pencils with this great stamp set.  

In fact, just to let you know how easy this was, I packed the Beautiful You stamp set and a clear block, the Basic Black Archival Ink along with the Watercolor Pencils and a pack of the Notecards in my son's swim bag.  See he recently graduated from his Parent Child Class to going to a group class.  This means I have 30 minutes to myself while he is swimming.  It is great!  So I stamped and colored while he had his class.  Here is what I made:

I also took a blender pen to blend the colors in a little bit more once I got home.  I actually had a little girl come up to me while I was coloring and we chatted about how we loved to color.  It really is a great stress relief!  The list of products I used is below.  I just realized that it costs a little bit over $50 (without the Blender Pens) which means you could buy all these products now and qualify for a Sale-A-Bration item.  And with these pencils, you should totally get the stamp set Hey Chick or the Inside the Lines DSP.  

For more projects using the Watercolor Pencils, head over to SSI!

CASE the Occasions Catalog - Swan Lake

Now the fabulous Occasions Catalog has been live for a few days now, you have had lots of time to pour over all the fabulous new products.  But have you really looked at all the amazing samples?  Aside from great products, Stampin' Up! has given us tons of inspiration in these catalogs.  The projects in there are super CASE-worthy (Copy And Share Everything)!  When you are CASEing you don't have to replicate a product...sometimes you just use the same colors or layout or technique.  

Today at SSI we are CASEing from the Occasions catalog.  Here is a picture of the sample I am CASEing first, it can be found on page 53 of the Occasions Catalog:

I received the Swan Lake stamp set at a Stampin' Up! I attended.  I was happy to win it since it was something I probably would not have bought myself.  I love so many things that they did with the little mini-treat bag so I decided to turn that into a card:

I took some Shimmery White and stamped the swan and the the other images with the Basic Black Archival Ink.  Then I grabbed my blender pens and watercolored.  I really liked the Pool Party with the Sweet Sugarplum in the catalog sample and added a Wild Wasabi card base.  I also loved the simple bow by the sentiment in the sample so I made sure to have one as well.  As you can see I didn't recreate the card in the catalog, but I definitely used it as a springboard to create my own card.  

Want to see more CASE'd cards from Occasions Catalog?  Head over to SSI!

January INKspiration Challenge

Happy Monday!  Today we have a great challenge for you over at Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration.  It is time for our INKspiration Challenge where we give you a photo and you create anything you want given the picture.  You can draw inspiration from the colors, the subject, the layout, whatever you want!  Here is this month image:

So two things jump out to me with this image; the big heart and the ombre style coloring.  So I went with both of those when creating my card.  Here is my card:

Once I figured out what I wanted to do, this card came together so quickly.  I just used a Whisper White card base and took my color cues from the image.  I used Blushing Bride, Flirty Flamingo and Watermelon Wonder and cut that beautiful heart from the Bloomin' Heart thinlit dies in each color.  I stacked them up exactly on top of each other and cut the stack in thirds and rebuilt in on the card base.  I added some rhinestones for a bit of sparkle.  The sentiment comes from the Bloomin' Love stamp set and it is stamped in Watermelon Wonder.  I added a bit of striped washi tape in Watermelon Wonder and added a die cut heart from the Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper.  I finished the card off with the a little bow in Blushing Bride baker's twine.  

What stands out when you look at that image!  Now it's your turn to create something and upload it over at SSI.